somehow i'm keeping it steady, oh baby i'm tearing up this town

[patricide]

Who: Lex and Ilde
What: rich kids chat about poetry and interior design
Where: "some random waterfront café in raven's gate"
When: Newdi afternoon
Notes: holy crap, they're finally meeting in person
Warnings: pretentiousness?

The food arrives promptly after Lex and Ilde find their table upstairs. It's certainly not the most casual of restaurants, but nothing too fancy either, the table affords a nice view and the atmosphere is altogether light and pleasant. He's wearing a suit sans tie and doesn't feel at all overdressed, though this is largely due to the fact that he is used to wearing suits a majority of the time as it is. It's one of many habits that Lex refuses to change just because of a little displacement.

Lex takes the time to appreciate his surroundings rather than begin to tear into his sandwich straight away, looking at the café's color scheme of cool tones to compliment the outside scenery. It all culminates with a centerpiece of a single flower in a slim vase on each table. He looks to Ilde and nods toward the flower. "Nothing against plants, but that might be a bit much at my place."

Comments

[rhinemaid]

Ilde is comfortably between formal and casual in her cream and lavender, though an argument can be made for the fact that a backless halterneck is always underdressing no matter how long or full the skirt you pair it with. She is not a student of that school of thought, however, so they're fine and she's fine with a salad and water.

"Clean lines," she suggests instead, a little dryly, sparing a glance for the centerpieces. "No plants at all, or no flowers?" Are you too manly for flowers, Lex.

[patricide]

It's neither plants nor flowers that he has a problem with, and Lex says as much easily. "I meant a vase on every table. I don't mind flowers or centerpieces."

"I'm a fan of clean lines myself, a nice blend of the modern to compliment the house's classic structure. What's been agreed on so far as far as decor goes is the use of glass. I know that doesn't tell you too much, but it's a start."

[rhinemaid]

It is a start, and she's playing this one by ear (so to speak) in general; vetoing her father's desire for shag carpeting on the grounds that it's tacky and he only wants it because of the name isn't quite the same as interior design. (It is, however, also a start! Real interior designers are weeping somewhere.)

"What sort of use of glass?" she asks, more as a prompt than an expectation that they will have agreed on anything like that. "Glass in the building design, accents in the design...? For light?"

[patricide]

"You don't have to worry about the building itself," he says, looking down to split the sandwich in half. "I was thinking more along the lines of incorporating it directly into the design. Glass tables and furniture and the like, possibly used for light. Whole pieces rather than accents."

Lex doesn't know Ilde very well, and while she was already hired by the most unconventional means, it doesn't hurt to learn a bit more of her background. "What go you started on interior design?"

[rhinemaid]

"This," she says, a little dryly. There's no sense lying about her qualifications, and she's not going to bother; if he then changes his mind about hiring her, she'll find something else to do. "I've never worked-" something in her tone suggests that the reason was not 'laziness', "-but I have historically had strong opinions on good taste. Until we can leave Baedal, I don't think the cello will be as useful to me as being opinionated."

It's work to stay rightly engaged with the conversation, but she makes the effort.

[patricide]

He's not going to fire her. The revelation does nothing but reveal that they have that much more in common, which isn't a bad thing. "Oh really? This has nothing to do with design, but I play the piano. If you know where to find instruments in this place I'd be honored to play with a proper musician."

[rhinemaid]

The piano is such a common instrument as not to stir a pang, though she is unavoidably reminded. Emotional theatrics have never really been her forte or her favourite thing, and she firmly pushes the thought aside, sipping her water. "I'm sure I could find a music shop - Howl Barrow seems like a likely suspect. My cello came with me."

Which is still odd, when she hadn't seen that instrument in years and she knows it's the same, but it's not the oddest thing about this place.

[patricide]

"And have you had the opportunity to play since you've been here?" he asks. If she comes from a background where she doesn't have to work and the city saw fit to send Ilde's cello along with her, it must must hold a significance greater than anything she could buy in a shop.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde makes a so-so gesture, shrugging. "At home, when I've got time. Instruments are meant to be played." It's like a stress valve she didn't have before, or the exercise of a reflex she's still learning her way around. (Music takes on a slightly different meaning, played by a Nixie.) "I hadn't seen it in years, though. It's odd, what they see fit to bring with people."

Her cello isn't a bad choice, but it was unexpected.

[patricide]

Lex's own object was common and personal at the same time. He's not entirely sure how he would explain meteor rocks to someone unfamiliar with Smallville so for now he decides not to take that direction in conversation.

"Well maybe it's the city's way of nudging you back to your roots. First the cello, then this job. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn when I say this, but you remind me of people I used to know back in my hometown. This roots thing might go both ways."

[rhinemaid]

Her laugh is a watery gurgle, speaking of things that are odd; very pleasant, but markedly unusual. "It would have to be a much bigger nudge than that," she says, shaking her head. "Much bigger."

She'd have to decide which is her hometown, for instance. It's so easy to call any place she's living 'home' as convenient shorthand when the word itself doesn't really hold any emotional meaning, isn't irrevocably tied to any one place. Or any place, at all - getting her family (or herself) to agree on her nationality would take an act of god. If her family is still there.

"But I know what you mean about being reminded. I think I used to drink with people like you." The phrase 'people like you' doesn't ordinarily hold particularly flattering connotations, but it doesn't sound as though it holds any judgement (negative or positive) when she uses it here. It's just an observation.

[patricide]

Lex takes notice of the laugh, it being like nothing he's heard before. He wants to know about her, but it's rude to ask things such as 'why does your laugh sound strange.'

"You still can," he says in an offhanded remark, tapping a finger to the wine menu with a smile. "Not that I advise getting completely drunk in a place like this, but if you're feeling nostalgic I'll buy."

[rhinemaid]

He has, of course, conveniently struck upon the way of getting an explanation without even asking for it - Ilde nearly laughs again, shaking her head and pushing the menu he points out slightly to the side with her fingertips. "I'd love to, but I'm a naiad. I do sober, and I do Tinkerbell on the piss, and there's not really anything in between. Unfortunately."

Not quite the image she wanted to send on a business lunch.

[patricide]

"Forgive my ignorance, but what does a naiad mean exactly? Besides a Tinkerbell who can't find her shoes."

He signals for a waiter and orders a bottle of wine and two glasses, leaning back in his chair and regarding Ilde with a mischievous look. "You don't have to partake of course, but for my part the business end of lunch finished a while ago."

[rhinemaid]

"...I get very drunk," she warns, making a half-hearted effort at looking stern. Lex is likeable and Ilde is remarkably easy to lead into indulgence - it's probably not the safest combination history ever offered up. "Sonja had to carry me home. I made Boromir listen to techno."

[patricide]

"I don't know who this Boromir is, but I'm sure Sonja could handle herself." He had no idea the two women knew each other, interesting.

The waiter returns with the uncorked bottle of wine chilling in a bucket of ice and two glasses. When the waiter leaves Lex pours his own glass, then holds the bottle over the empty one and raises his eyebrows at Ilde.

"Moment of truth, what do you say?"

[rhinemaid]

"You can't say I didn't warn you," she says, philosophically, with a light gesture to pour.

[patricide]

"I've built my life around poor decisions, Miss Decima," he says, filling Ilde's glass and nudging it toward her.

"To those we used to drink with," is the toast as Lex holds his glass toward Ilde.

[rhinemaid]

A small pause follows his toast before she lifts her glass to match it, not quite smiling. The laugh earlier is faded back into her from wherever it came from, and she eases back behind her comfortable opacity, for as long as that'll last after she starts drinking wine.

"To those drinking without us," she says, tipping her head and taking a drink.

[patricide]

With the toast finished Lex takes a long, slow sip of his drink, looking at Ilde from the top of his glass to gauge the truth to her earlier statements regarding being a lightweight.

[rhinemaid]

Her habitual stillness is such that it is sort of obvious, sort of immediately; she likes the taste and it makes her smile so much more easily (soft - fuzzy around the edges) than she ever does sober, her eyelashes lowering, some thought spinning through her mind and making her sink her teeth into her lip to prevent a bubbling up of amusement.

"Decima is my middle name," she says, after a moment, as if there's nothing strange about waiting that long to make the distinction. She's still smiling.

[patricide]

"Mine's Joseph," he says. Not that it particularly matters but it's important to not let too much of the conversation rest on another person.

"Does that mean addressing you as Miss Decima is now off the table?" He's not sure what is asking too much and Lex tells himself to phrase questions in the best way possible while he still can.

[rhinemaid]

"You can call me Miss Decima if I can call you Mr Joseph," she says, with the kind of logic that tends to only come out with bottles of wine. (More wine, for most people, than Ilde has yet had. That's the magic of fairies.)

[patricide]

"You can if you want," he says with a laugh, downing his glass and subsequently refilling it in an attempt to feel even a slight bit of what Ilde is. Lex can't hope for equal footing, but he can do what he can.

"Lex is a nickname after all, Mr. Joseph would probably be more appropriate. Is there something you'd prefer to be called, Miss Decima?"

[rhinemaid]

"Oh, that's fine. I dropped my surname." Ilde considers that for a moment, and then adds, "Like Cher. Except with a middle name."

...yes.

[patricide]

Well. The mention of Cher definitely deserves a drink. Possibly two. Lex makes up his mind with two long swallows.

"I would have pegged you as more of the Madonna type. I'm not getting that Vegas headdress vibe."