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WHO: Andromeda Tonks & Whoever
WHERE: Walking to a coffee shop to meet Erik, but open beforehand!
WHEN: Friday afternoon
WARNINGS: None so far!
SUMMARY: Andromeda and Erik are going to have coffee, but Andromeda leaves early to get some more exploring done.
FORMAT: Prose to start, will match after.

Although much of her shopping trip with her daughter had involved looking at ridiculous shoes, she had been able to find both some sensible clothes for work and a few sets of casual day clothes. She was wearing some of them now as she headed out to meet Erik at one of the small, privately owned coffee shops. They'd agreed to avoid the large chain franchises as they seemed to offer plenty of sugary beverages, but little in the way of actual, factual coffee. While she was more than an hour early, she wanted to take the opportunity to continue to familiarize herself with the neighbourhood around the MAC. She was headed to the pharmacy to pick up a little lip chap before her meeting with Erik, since this place had proved to be drier than she'd been anticipating.

At least it was a nice day outside. She was starting to fall into a rhythm here, whether that was for good or bad -- working at the clinic had helped her feel more at home than she had in her first weeks here, even with all the familiar faces and joy over knowing her daughter was alive. She kept her head up as she walked, not wanting to run into anyone or miss an opportunity to chat with someone she knew.

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Erik arrived at the coffee shop several minutes before their scheduled time. He did not order yet, but he took the opportunity to find a table for the two of them. The shop had a fair amount of customers but certainly wasn't crowded, and it was open enough that he doubted Andromeda would have any difficulty seeing him when she arrived.

It was refreshing to talk to other imPorts who did not seem to already know Erik from their own world. It was quite awkward when others seemed to know much more about you than you knew about them, even if there were considerable differences between the version of him that they knew and Erik himself. He knew that Andromeda would have no preconceived notions of how Erik was supposed to act, and that allowed him to relax as he felt like he did not have to prove himself to her.

In some ways, Andromeda was on the other side of Erik's problems: she knew much about what was going to happen to many of the people that were here, but was unsure how much they had already managed to glean from people from their future. It put her on edge more than anything, trying to figure out what she could and could not talk about. That was one of the reasons she'd more-or-less forcibly befriended Severus - at least he knew almost all the things that she did.

Still, it would be nice to talk to someone who wasn't expecting her to know them -- there was something to be said about getting to know people face-to-face, and Erik had at least seemed like someone she might have something in common with (and who was reasonably close to her age). She spotted him only a moment after stepping inside, glad to see that he'd saved them a place to sit. She slipped into the seat across from him, smiling briefly.

"It looks like you got here in the nick of time. I hope you weren't waiting long..."

Erik gave a slight smile as his companion arrived. With a small gesture of his wrist, the empty chair across the table from him moved back a couple feet from the table so that Andromeda was easily able to seat herself there.

The mutant did not consider himself an old man, but he had certainly been feeling that way since arriving in the City. There were several reasons for it, really. The main one being that had had essentially been transported forward in time half a century, but also because many of the other imPorts had only ever known a version of him that was decades older, and it seemed that some of them could not help treating him in such a way. Suddenly finding himself with teenage grandchildren did not help that matter much. So it was quite nice to be able to have conversations with another individual over the age of thirty, as it seemed that a disproportionate number of imPorts were teens or barely past that age. He supposed it made a bit of sense, if only because they seemed good candidates for the idealistic heroics that the Porter seemed to be seeking.

"No, I only arrived several minutes ago," he assured Andromeda. "It is nice to meet you in person," he added.

She wondered to herself for a moment if the type of chairs in this place wasn't part of the reason that Erik had chosen it, on top of the fact that it seemed like it had a cozy atmosphere.

"Ah, good." Andromeda slid easily into the chair, pulling it closer to the table and settling in. She dropped her purse by one of her feet and looked over to him again. "And you. I suppose this is the part where I say I was expecting you to be taller or something like that, hm?" She leaned back in her chair, wondering if she could flag a barista over or whether they'd have to go up to the counter to get a coffee.

"I have to say, it's lovely just to talk to someone who's my own age. The closest people from my world are -- well, my daughter and many other people who are rather dead during my time. It's ... awkward, at best." She paused.

"I don't mean to unload, though, especially as we don't know each other all that well."

Fortunately for the both of them, a waiter promptly arrived only moments after Andromeda had situated herself in her seat. The true reason Erik had chosen this coffeehouse was because they served Turkish coffee, which he was pleased to order. The waiter disappeared once they had both placed their order.

Erik chuckled a bit at her words. "Generally, I have been hearing that people expect me to be older. Or at the very least to have more grey hairs." He gave a bit of a shrug.

The rest of Andromeda's words made Erik frown just slightly. "That is... incredibly unfortunate," he replied. "Though it must be nice to be able to see them again. Unless they are people who you would prefer to stay dead, that is." Somehow, Andromeda did not strike him as the type of person who would wish death upon people, but he did not want to rule out the possibility.

The Turkish coffee was too appealing and curiosity-inducing to resist, so she had opted to order the same. She pursed her lips as Erik spoke, only vaguely amused.

"How much older are we talking, exactly?" She tapped her fingers on the table for a moment, curious. "I'm happy to see the majority of them, although I can't help but be worried about what will happen when I return home. If it's like losing them all over again... it will be painful."

To say the least. "There are many people here who would wish to see my sister stay dead, although she's here -- but I am not among them despite her animosity toward myself and my family." Some people can only stand so much hatred, and Andromeda is one of those people...despite hatred being easier.

"Have you encountered anything like that yourself? Or is it mostly people knowing you in the future and making incorrect assumptions..?"

Erik gave a bit of a chuckle at that. "Old enough to have a son in his late thirties and teenage grandsons," he replied. "I was born in 1930. I am not sure if that is standard in all timelines, however," he added with a bit of a shrug. He had never heard anyone mention a specific age, but he had a general idea.

He gave an understanding nod at her words. He was finding himself rather curious about the world that Andromeda came from, but did not want to get ahead of himself. "Besides Charles and Raven, everyone I have encountered who seems to know me is not just from a world where I am older, but a separate timeline entirely. It is difficult to tell if my future ever would have turned out the same as in that world regardless.

Andromeda raised an eyebrow. All right, that was older than she was expecting. How different a person -- and their world -- could become in perhaps forty years or more. Then again ... "Some of the people that I know here I haven't seen for nearly twenty years -- as I mentioned, them being dead."

When he spoke about alternate timelines, she couldn't help but take a bit of pause. It wasn't anything she'd heard about before. "I didn't know that was a possibility here. I suppose it's understandable, given how complex decisions can be -- but I've never heard of more than one version of a world occurring." And she's certainly not enough of an expert in time-travel to understand exactly how it could happen.

"If that's the case, though, I hope people aren't being too judgmental. It hardly seems fair, if you aren't even the man that they know in a strict sense. I'm glad that you have at least a few friends to back up your side of things, though. Otherwise I'd suppose they might think you were just lying to protect your best interests and actual motives." It's what she'd have done if she found out she was an unsavoury character in a few years' time.

Erik gave a small, understanding nod. "I can see how that must be hard for you, having to constantly be cautious of what you are saying to the people you know from your own world. I do not believe that I would like to know my own future with the knowledge that if I was ever Ported back to my own world, there is nothing I could do to avoid it. It is comforting to know that the things that I am being told about this older version of myself may not be set in stone for me... There are notable parts of our past that differ from this other world, so at this point it is impossible to tell whether the future would be similar at all.

"It is my understanding that we are not unique in this regard-- that is, we are not the first people to have been brought to the City who are different versions of individuals that other imPorts already know. I have not spoken to anyone in depth about this, though."

Erik manages a slight smile. "It seems that Charles is one of the best people I could possibly hope for to testify on my behalf. He is quite well regarded in this other world, apparently. The fact that he regularly reads my mind only makes his word stronger."

"Oh, rest assured that I already inadvertently spilled the worst of the beans upon my arrival." She took a breath. "I was only a few hours off of finding out that my daughter and her husband had been killed, so I was understandably -- upset. I had no idea at that time that this place could house the dead." Erik can probably imagine just how well that went. She was sure that Dora was still avoiding her in some ways - not necessarily physically, but they certainly hadn't spoken about what was to become of her daughter.

She filed the information about Charles in the back of her mind, wondering vaguely if occlumency would be any sort of barrier to Charles. She had no idea, really -- it was highly possible his mutation worked in a completely different way than legilimency did. She nodded. "That's fortunate, at least. I can imagine that they'll be slow to believe him even so, though, if what you've told me is true." She paused. "Are you settling in well other than that? Any job prospects, that kind of thing?" She didn't know about him personally, but it drove her mad not having any sort of work to do.

[Erik looks a bit sympathetic and gives an understanding nod.] You cannot blame yourself for that. Grieving is quite normal.

[He gives a small nod.] I am finding myself rather comfortable. I do not have a job, but I have not done much looking. The income we receive as imPorts is satisfactory for me, so I do not feel much of a need to find another source of income. Unless I find a job that catches my interest, of course.

Edited 2011-09-16 07:21 (UTC)

Of course. I need to keep myself busy or I think I might go mad, so finding a job was necessary. My daughter also wants to find a house that's a bit more suited to our needs than the MAC, so we'll need money for that little venture.

[There's a pause.] And it would be a waste to let my particular magic talents go unused when there are people to be helped here. I've seen enough death in my life to try and prevent as much more as I can.

[He chuckles a bit.] That is understandable. I've had enough to do lately, trying to catch up with half a century of developments and meeting family members I did not previously know existed. But I imagine things will slow down before long, and I will need something to keep myself busy. [He gives a slight shrug.]

That is an admirable goal.

I'm fortunate that it's only been twenty or so years for me -- although I never did have much experience with muggle big-cities. We visited Ted's parents in London, of course, but the outskirts - not the downtown proper.

[She smiles.] Admirable? Maybe. I've spoken to others here who don't think that some people deserve to be saved.

Muggle? [He sounds a bit curious about the unfamiliar term.]

I have been to New York before, but only in brief. People say that this place is different... that things are not in the right places. But I never spent enough time in America to tell the difference.

[He gives another shrug.] It depends on the people, I suppose. I would be lying if I said that there are not some people who I would choose not to save.

[She takes a sip of her drink.]

My apologies. Non-wizarding folk are generally referred to as Muggles. [She considers his words.]

I don't know if I could trust myself to make that sort of choice. If it came down to it -- in a duelling situation, for example -- I would defend myself. Choosing not to help someone if they showed up at the emergency room is a different matter entirely.

[He takes note of the term, and gives a nod at the rest of her words.]

Yes, when you put it that way it is hard to disagree.

I'd hope most people wouldn't disagree, but I must say that -- that isn't what's been shown to me.

[Ah, and now she's bringing down their conversation. She takes another sip of her drink.]

But I'm waxing moral at you. I'm sure you have more interesting things to talk about...more of your concerns about this place, perhaps, or observations.

[Erik takes a sip of his own coffee. He is glad for the definite improvement over the coffee that he's been finding elsewhere in the City.]

It is interesting to get used to. To my knowledge, mutants were the only beings in my world with... unique abilities. I have met not only witches like yourself, but a number of aliens and other creature here. It is... a lot to take in.

It can be a bit overwhelming. The time difference seems almost negligible when compared with finding out that other reasonably intelligent species are possible, really.

[She smiles.] It's refreshing, in some ways. So many new perspectives here.

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